1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for separating salts in seawater which contains useful metal ions.
2. Related Art Statement
It is well known that there are many chemical elements such as Na, Cl, various metals and halogens in seawater. But only a few elements such as Na, Cl, Mg, Br are obtained from seawater as a mineral source heretofore.
Raw salts are obtained from seawater by evaporation and used for many purposes. But excessive energy is necessary in the evaporation because it requires phase-change of water. Further, the raw salts have to be purified or prepared for each purpose. In addition to evaporation, reverse-osmosis is carried, out for desalinization of seawater. The reverse-osmosis is carried out by using a large scale and expensive apparatus such as a high-pressure pump or reverse-osmosis modules. Moreover these processes of desalinization of seawater don't seek to utilize the available elements from seawater but only to desalt seawater.